Blackcurrants what can I do with them?

[jackie j]

Last year I made blackcurrant wine its is yummy, I only bottled it last week, whoops.

[janeyo]

I did blackcurrant vodka last year, (same as sloe gin), this year I have got blackcurant gin on the go

[di]

Can I just ask...having never done anything with blackcurrants before...when preparing them I assume I don't need to be taking off the papery brown bit on their bottoms?
I was planning on jam and don't really want to sieve/strain.
Or would I just be better off mixing them with some brandy?

[Buttie]

Blackcurrant Cake

I don't have a blackcurrant bush any more so use bilberries for the following cake. This has been a family favourite for many years and is a great traybake or pudding.

Blackcurrant cake


100 gm Soft margarine
200 gm caster sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence (optional)
227 gm Plain Flour
2level tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 tbsp milk
110 gm fresh blackcurrants
Granulated sugar to sprinkle

Cream the margarine & sugar. Beat egg & vanilla into mixture. Sift flour, salt & baking powder and fold in. Add milk and mix. Stir in fruit. Put into greased & lined 7 x 11 tin.
Sprinkle top with granulated sugar if desired.
Bake at gas 4 (350F, 180C) for approx 50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

[Mac]

We did the gin thing as we don't get sloe's near us. If it turns out as good as the rhubarb voddie I'll be a happy bunny!

[jackie j]

Blackcurrant jam you need to top and bottom them if you are not straining ithrough a sieve. I made 14lb last week, just picked another 2lb and more to pick.

[northepaul]

I think I may be the only person on the vine who cant stand blackcurants?!?!

Ironically my OH loves them and has newly planted two bushes of them.....!!

[binley100]

I've made a sauce of them, adding some sugar. That bit's not very exciting, but then add gin to the hot sauce and pour over home-made lemon curd ice-cream. Also works well with blueberries. Is there a slightly tiddled-looking smilie?

Off to hunt for lemon curd ice cream recipe..............

[Scottishnewbie]

would i be correct in thinking that anything you can do with BLACKcurrants you can also do with WHITEcurrants (obviously the colour would be different!)

[Ruth M C]

A simple solution would be to freeze them - Eating them gently stewed in mid winter is lovely. Especially when ice cream is added. Alternative I made a black current and red currant cheese cake the other day which I later froze until required

Recipe
Tub of Mascapone cheese
Tub of natural cottage cheese (I bought 500g which was a bit too much)
Packet of digestive biscuits
Some butter/margarine - (sorry I didn't measure it)
Black/red currants
(Could easily use blueberries as an alternative)
Squidge of Agave syrup - sorry I forgot to mention this when I first posted the recipe but remembered later. It balances out the sharpness of the fruit and can be used safely by diabetics as its a slow release natural sweetner.

This quantity provided me with two 8 inch cheese cakes

Put some digestive biscuits in a poly bag and bash with a rolling pin or something fairly heavy until tiny crumbs.
Gently melt the butter over a low heat and add the digestive crumbs - mix until all crumbs are coated. They should stick together but if they don't add a drop of milk.
Press the crumb mixture in the base of an 8 inch cake tin with a fork or palette knife.
Empty both tubs of cheese into a large bowl and mix well together.
Using a sieve (or whatever implement you have that suits the purpose) squish the fruit to separate the pips and skins from juice through the sieve and let the juice fall onto the cheese mix.
When all fruit has been pressed (scrape the underneath of the sieve to get loads more) into the cheese, gently fold the fruit and cheese together. Compost the pips and skins.
Spoon the cheese and fruit mix over the digestive base and place in freezer until required.

I found that I needed to keep it in the freezer for and hour to set the top.

Hope you enjoy

[Brengirl]

If I had a stash of them I would definitely make blackcurrant liqueur (cassis). When the first extraction of juice and flavour is complete you can still use the pulp for whatever you fancy. I did google recipes but there are so many so the choice is up to you.

[chris]

Ya know, I've never had a proper, fresh blackberry before. I picked three from my bush (first year), wow! So tangy, yet so sweet - amazing! I hope I'll get bumper crops in the years to come! Would love to trry some of these recipies